To buy or not to buy: Flat or house?

Originally Posted by Graciepants

my auntie has a beautiful house in ipswich, suffolk (i know i know oxymoron and all that), and commutes into london everyday. she used to have a flat in london but it was very small and she wanted to get married so they moved away. she spends thousands of pounds a year on train tickets, reall extoriate amounts, for trains that are usually delayed, being fixed and very very busy. i recommened that if you did buy a house, make it somewhere reasonably close so you could drive in, or didnt have to have a 2hr train journey then take 2 tubes. because she's at the end of her tether now

Live in ipswich in london at least once a week due to work, I hate the train but its what we do....

I couldnt live in london at all..

anywhoo ... House

Everytime

Originally Posted by speedplay

I spent a year working in kingston (i know its not london but its inside the M25).

Thats my stint done!!

But you live in Northampton now, that's worse!!
I had to live there for two years, give me London anyday.

House definitely. Lived in a flat for 4 years (first place away from parents) and I really, really missed having the garden to sit in. The communal grounds around the flat were nice, but it's not the same as having your own space. I love my back garden in my current place and can't wait for summer to arrive so I can finish work, come home and sit outside to chill (probably in the rain)

[timwilky]

When I lived in Telford it was in a flat, nice and convenient for the shopping centre literally across the road. But 3rd damm floor. It took 3 of us about 2 hours to carry my safe in. When they delivered my washing machine delivery driver refused to deliver and dumped it on the grass outside. Nowhere to store my bikes so I had to leave them at my parents 100 miles away. Carrying the toolbox down to do any work on the car was a back breaker, Having to relie on the sun to shine before you do any maintenance, was desperate. (I had to do a clutch change at the side of the road in the rain, not nice).

So when I escaped, I made sure every house I looked to buy had a garage. Just so desperate to buy that I did not specify garage adequately and failed to get the quadrouple size one I really should have gone for.

Now I can annoy my neighbours with BBQs, grandkids running round/screaming to my hearts content

Get a house. We've got a flat in London and the service charges are a couple of hundred quid a month. I keep thinking that if we had a house instead then that money could be better spent. I really wish now that I'd bought a house outside of London, rather than a flat in London.